Here we are, at the end of our journey! I hope the ride was nice.

Enjoy!

Merlin was having trouble breathing steadily by the time he arrived at the café. He burst in, and upon not finding what he was looking for, he put himself in line, for lack of anything else to do.

He made it to the front counter, where Gwaine stood waiting. The barista greeted him with a beam. "Your usual, Merlin?"

"Ah, y-yes… that."

Gwaine frowned. "You sound a bit… uncertain. Do you want your regular tea? Or, maybe you want…." He leaned in a bit closer, grinning. "Your new regular?"

Merlin stared at him. "Yes, okay," he stated, utterly absent from the situation. He stuck out a few banknotes.

Gwaine gleefully accepted the money. "Good! You can head over to the waiting counter, mate, be done in a sec."

Merlin's mind was a thousand miles away as he meandered over to the waiting counter. What was he even doing here? He couldn't even remember the dream that had compelled him to come, so what was he doing?

The reason marched through the door not a second later, honing in on Merlin the second he was noticed.

Arthur grabbed Merlin's arm without a second thought, dragging him over to what he had since dubbed "their" table. "We need to talk," he declared, "Merlin." The name was the most familiar, out of all the strange things, and it brought with it a thousand feelings and memories he had never asked for.

Merlin stared at him, wondering why this stranger's face (for they had only met around two weeks ago, and had met twice in all that time) was such a comfort to his anxiety.

"Merlin?" he heard Gwaine call.

"I have to go," Merlin said, staring at Arthur for a moment longer until he had to turn around and head back to the counter.

As soon as the drink was in his hand, he took a more than healthy gulp of it before striding back to where Arthur sat, drumming his fingers on the table. The caffeine surged through Merlin's veins, giving him the strength to sit down and face this man.

"Hello, Arthur," he said quietly, as it felt appropriate to greet him.

Arthur ignored him. "Listen, this is going to sound very strange, but—"

"Do I seem familiar to you?" Merlin blurted, heart thrumming a bit too hard in his ribcage as soon as he recognized the turn in the conversation.

Arthur gaped at him. "That… was just what I was about to say, er… do I…?"

"Arthur, I don't know who you are, and I'm very much frightened about what exactly is happening right now but yes, I… I know you."

"You're contradicting yourself," Arthur replied weakly.

"I know." Merlin took a gulp of espresso-tea that burned his throat. "Believe me, I know, but I also don't know what's happening, and I'm very—" he flapped his hands in an effort to find an adequate word "—confused."

"Merlin," Arthur said. He was very pale. "Did you… have a dream last night?"

"Ah, yeah," Merlin practically whimpered. It felt as though the answer to all this confusion was just a few steps away, but he couldn't move to reach it. It was maddening.

Arthur took a breath to steady himself. "Tell me about it."

"Ah." Merlin's eyebrows went up. "I—I can't remember."

Arthur's eyes were pleading with him. "Try. Anything."

"R-right… well…." Merlin racked his brains, but he came up with very little. "There was… a wall."

"A wall, okay. What is the wall a part of?" Arthur demanded, voice rising in urgency.

"A… castle?"

"Right, yes, a castle, and where is this castle?"

"Ah… er… I…."

"Merlin," Arthur growled, and Merlin did not understand why he was angry, of all things.

"Look, I can't remember! I just… I… I…."

His heart was pounding, his mind was reeling, and he tried to stop his arms from flailing and failed spectacularly. Merlin, repeated his mind, reminding him of the curious emphasis on the first syllable, and that was familiar too, wasn't it….

In his agitation, the cup of Gwaine's concoction was knocked clear off the table, spinning wildly in a great arc until—it stopped, just like that, in midair. Merlin felt a strange sensation rushing through him, focusing just behind his eyes.

Both men stared at it for a moment before turning back to each other.

Suddenly, everything clicked.

"Merlin," Arthur said, the word so familiar on his lips, and he remembered.

"Arthur" Merlin whispered, scarcely daring to believe the memories that suddenly surfaced, until Arthur surged forwards and pulled him into a tight hug, and Merlin's heart nearly burst. The cup of espresso-tea dropped ungracefully to the floor, but neither noticed.

"Where have you been, you idiot," Arthur muttered, but it was hardly a question.

Merlin laughed around the tears he felt springing forth. "Arthur," he repeated, "Arthur, it's been so long, I can't even believe it…."

A few bystanders stared at them, but they could hardly care. No one seemed to have noticed the mishap with the espresso-tea.

Gwaine let out a low whistle from behind the counter. "Took them long enough," he muttered to Lancelot, who stood beside him, covering his smile with a hand.

"Yes," Lancelot agreed. "Now we can finally all get on with our lives."

From behind her newspaper, Gwen smiled. "Elyan and Percival are on their way," she told them, folding her newspaper and pulling out her phone.

"And so is Leon," Lancelot added, doing the same.

Gwaine grinned as Merlin and Arthur detached themselves from each other and glanced in their direction. Merlin burst into fresh tears at the sight of them, and even Arthur was hit by the onslaught of emotional memories.

Lancelot looked up and smiled nervously at the very perturbed customers who stood in line. "Gwaine, we're going to have to take them to the back room."

Gwaine only shrugged. "They can talk it out wherever they want, I think. It's quite a spectacle."

"Gwaine," Lancelot hissed.

"Oh, fine," Gwaine sighed, but he was still beaming as he motioned them over.

Then they cried and hugged and exchanged stories and hugged some more. Probably cried some more too.

It's done! I have... never finished a multichap before... o_o I don't know how I feel... especially since this was never meant to have more than one chapter, haha.

Thank you for reading!